Former U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, the Thornton Democrat who lost her bid for a second term last year in one of the closest congressional races in the country, announced on Tuesday that she wants a rematch with Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District.

Ahead of her run, Caraveo has also opened up about more incidents surrounding a mental health crisis she faced last year that landed her in the hospital multiple times.

“The 8th District deserves a representative who’s looking out for them, but Gabe Evans has already shown that he will always put Donald Trump, Elon Musk and his MAGA backers in Washington first,” Caraveo said in a release announcing her candidacy.

“I can’t stand by while Gabe Evans tries to rip away health care from tens of thousands of Coloradans, including the very families I served as a pediatrician, and make life harder for working families,” she added. “Now more than ever, Coloradans need a leader who will stand up for them and do the right thing — I’m ready to continue doing just that.“

Caraveo, a former state lawmaker and the first Latina and first physician to represent Colorado in Congress, said that growing up in the district in a working family as the daughter of Mexican immigrants gives her an understanding of residents’ financial challenges.

“I know how hard it is for working families to make ends meet; my parents raised me right here in Adams County on my dad’s construction worker pay and I worked my way through college and went on to medical school,” Caraveo said. “That’s why I’ve spent my life serving our community, first as a pediatrician and then working to lower costs for families in the state legislature and in Congress.”

Evans, an Army veteran, former police officer and former state lawmaker from Fort Lupton, unseated Caraveo last fall by fewer than 2,500 votes in the closely divided district, which covers parts of Adams, Weld and Larimer counties north of the Denver metro area. Two years earlier, Caraveo won election to the newly created seat by an even narrower, roughly 1,600-vote margin.

Both Democrats and Republicans are again targeting the seat, which is ranked by election analysts as the state’s only toss-up district and could determine which party holds the majority in the House of Representatives after next year’s election.

Caraveo joins state Rep. Manny Rutinel, D-Commerce City, in the Democratic primary. Rutinel, an environmental attorney, said last week that his campaign raised a record-setting $1.1 million in the first quarter, though by late Monday his campaign had yet to file a campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission.

It’s likely to be an expensive primary. Caraveo raised more than $8 million in the 2024 election, and the race as a whole drew roughly $30 million in outside spending, making it the most expensive congressional race in Colorado history.

In recent weeks, Caraveo has done multiple interviews with local broadcasters, where she’s discussed her struggles with mental health and provided new details related to an incident that came to light during last year’s campaign.

Saying she wanted to “de-stigmatize” mental illness, Caraveo went public last summer with her struggles with depression, including checking herself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, near Washington, DC, for several days earlier last year.

In an interview in March with Colorado Public Radio, Caraveo described additional instances, including one when she took a high dose of sleeping pills and texted a staffer, “If I don’t wake up tomorrow, tell everybody that I’m sorry.” After the staffer called 911 and an ambulance transported Caraveo to an emergency room, she was put on a mental health hold, she said.

“It felt like I was barely keeping my head above water,” Caraveo told CPR’s Caitlyn Kim. “And so any challenge that came across the board really kind of felt like my head was getting dunked underwater.”

Weeks later, Caraveo related, another incident took place in the district, when she took a “handful” of medication in response to a painful foot injury, prompting another ambulance call after the medicine “kicked in,” she said. This time, medical personnel discharged her, and she checked herself into Walter Reed after returning to Washington.

Caraveo acknowledged that revealing more about her struggles with depression could become a campaign issue but said she believes it’s important to be candid about mental health.

“That’s exactly why I’m speaking out, so that I can be one more little chip on that wall of trying to take down the stereotypes and the stigma that exists around mental health care,” Caraveo told CPR.. “Even getting down into details that I feel uncomfortable sharing around suicidality and how dark things got.”

Caraveo said she has a better understanding of the warning signs and can respond better to her own needs, adding that watching the news made her want to advocate for the kids she saw in clinic, among other issues.

“I think my voice, especially now, given that I’ve had my own healthcare struggles, may be needed,” she said.